For one New Hampshire dog, a day hiking with his humans turned into a strenuous rescue mission.Earlier this month, a pooch named Bruno and his owners were hiking Mount Jefferson, a popular hiking destination in New Hampshire, when the dog injured his paws on the “hot” and “jagged” terrain and was unable to move forward, according to New England Cable News (NECN).
“Once his paws got torn up he basically said, ‘Hey, I’m done walking, I’m done moving, I’ve had enough,’ ” Zippy, one of the volunteers, told NECN. “And he just sat down and refused to move any further.”Zippy, along with other rescuers, were alerted to the incident after seeing an online post from Bruno’s owners. Zippy stated that the hikers were “fairly dehydrated” when approached, as they had since run out of food and water and “obviously weren’t planning to spend the night on the side of the mountain right on the trail,” per NECN.
Bruno, who was unable to walk after he injured his paws on rocky mountain terrain, is fixed into a harness by volunteer rescuers.
Michael Piesniewski
The volunteers then took turns carrying Bruno down the mountain for two-and-a-half miles. The entire rescue took reportedly took “about 16 hours” and, according to WMUR-TV, involved 15 rescuers, with six people carrying Bruno at a time before alternating.
In video footage of the event, Bruno can be seen being fixed with a harness, his paws protected by bandages. Photos also show the canine in a sling attached to a rescuer’s back.
Zippy reported that some of the harness handles began to rip off due to the dog’s weight, the tough terrain and the awkward angles the rescuers had to hold the gear at. “I picked him up and put him on my back with the harness and we made it like that, slowly but surely made it across, until we got to the Cap’s Ridge junction, when it got a little wider,” he said, according to NECN.
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Rescuer Michael Piesniewski and Bruno.
Michael Piesniewski
Despite the rocky ride, Bruno was in “good spirits” during the mission and is currently “on the path to recovery.”
“He was the sweetest boy,” rescuer Michael Piesniewski told WMUR-TV. Piesniewski, a dog owner himself, knew he had to help, and drove from Manchester to assist in the mission.”Bruno was just fantastic the whole time,” Zippy added. “There were a couple of times he would look at me and he would grumble if I touched his paw while I was bandaging it, but other than that, he would just lay there and [knew] we were there to help.”
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Despite the rocky ride, Bruno was in “good spirits” during the mission.
Michael Piesniewski
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Mount Jefferson is the third tallest peak in New Hampshire. With a rising amount of hiking injuries and deaths across the United States this summer, due to factors like falls and extreme heat, animal officials are also warning of the dangers of attempting these paths with pets.
“Please, please be prepared before you hit the New Hampshire mountains,” Holly Mokrzecki, founder of Granite State Dog Recovery in Manchester, told WMUR-TV.
According to Mokrzecki, dog rescues increase during warmer months due to out-of-state hikers. Pet injury can be avoided with the right preparation, such as packing special harnesses and boots.“A lot of these people that bring their dogs, [the] dogs are not conditioned to the mountains of New Hampshire,” she said.
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